Brutal attack on Ukraine city central to Putin’s negotiations

Smoke rises from an explosion following a Russian drone strike on Sumy, Ukraine. Picture; AFP.

The Russian missiles that crashed into the crowded streets of the Ukrainian border city of Sumy on Sunday not only killed dozens, they were also an illustration of President Putin’s brutal negotiating tactics.

The attack killed 34 people, including two children, and was the deadliest Russian missile strike on Ukraine since October 2023. It came shortly after President Trump had expressed guarded optimism about peace talks.

On Friday his envoy, Steve Witkoff, met Putin in St Petersburg in the latest in a series of talks between US and Russian officials on Ukraine. The Kremlin said yesterday that the meeting had been “extremely useful and very effective”.

Yet even amid diplomacy, Russia has been ramping up its attacks in what appears to be a deadly response to Trump’s efforts to “stop the bloodshed”.

The strike on Sumy was the second large-scale Russian missile strike on civilians since Putin and Trump spoke about ending the war in February. On April 4, a missile strike on Kryvyi Rih, President Zelensky’s home city, killed 20 people, including nine children. There were also more civilian casualties in Ukraine in March than in January or February, according to the United Nations.

According to the authorities in Kyiv, Putin’s tactics, honed over the years, are simple: bombard Ukraine into submission.

“[Russia] thinks we will break and demand peace at the price of any concession to Moscow. That we will crawl on our knees and say ‘we agree to everything’ … but they are mistaken,” Kirill Sazonov, a Ukrainian war correspondent, wrote on social media.

Moscow has said there can be no end to the war while Zelensky’s pro-western government is in power and until Ukraine hands over four regions in its east and south. It also wants NATO formally to state that Ukraine will never be offered membership and limit the size of its military. Kyiv has rejected all these demands.

With his army making steady progress on the battlefield, Putin has few incentives to call off his invasion. Ukraine’s forces are outnumbered and outgunned and struggling to plug gaps.

Trump, who wants the Nobel peace prize, was reluctant to criticise Putin after the deaths in Sumy. “I think it was terrible. And I was told they made a mistake,” he said. He made no mention of his threat to impose secondary tariffs on countries that continue to buy Russian oil, if Moscow did not negotiate in good faith.

Even the limited ceasefires that were announced in February have stalled. Russia has demanded sanctions relief in return for agreeing to a truce in the Black Sea, while a 30-day ban on energy facilities has now expired. Both Kyiv and Moscow accused each other of breaking the latter deal.

The Kremlin said Putin would decide whether to extend it, possibly after more talks with US officials. Russian and Ukrainian officials are due to meet tomorrow in Ankara to discuss Black Sea security, CNN Turk said. It is not clear if they will speak directly.

The Times